moore27_0038_el.JPG The Sartotial Creatures were designed and built by Monique Motil and on display at Paxton Gate in the Mission
Christopher Moore,writer, surrounded by characters from his book A Dirty Job. In particular character Charlie Asher (aligator) created from a character in the book. The Sartotial Creatures were designed and built by Monique Motil and on display at Paxton Gate in the Mission. Photographer:
Eric Luse / SFChronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

moore27_0038_el.JPG The Sartotial Creatures were designed and built by Monique Motil and on display at Paxton Gate in the Mission
Christopher Moore,writer, surrounded by characters from his book A Dirty Job. ... more

Photo: Eric Luse

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Photo: Eric Luse

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Geisha Mink
Creatures at the Paxton Gallery because the gallery has a collection of stuffed squirrels that Moore includes in his book. please shoot them clean (4 or 5 of them) as we will be adding them to a centerpiece on an author.
(christopher moore)Eric Luse The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

{filenamet}
Geisha Mink
Creatures at the Paxton Gallery because the gallery has a collection of stuffed squirrels that Moore includes in his book. please shoot them clean (4 or 5 of them) as we will be adding ... more

Photo: Eric Luse

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Comic horror author writes of Death's antics in S.F. -- 'A Dirty Job,' but somebody had to do it

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Lanky, easygoing Christopher Moore never intended to become a nationally best-selling author of wildly comic novels with a cult following. "I thought I was going to be a horror story writer," says Moore over a latte on Valencia Street. Moore is in town to kick off a 30-city book tour for the release of "A Dirty Job," a cheerful tale about Death, which is set in San Francisco. "My influences were horror writers, like Rich Matheson, Ray Bradbury and Bram Stoker."

Having a paranoid imagination never hurt a horror writer, and Moore got that from his father, a highway patrolman in Mansfield, Ohio.

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"Cops get a jaded sense of the world," he says.

But when Moore began reading his stories aloud, people laughed at his turns of phrase. Moore recovered from the discovery that though he is a serious writer, he does not write serious books. "As Richard Pryor was to Eddie Murphy, that's what Kurt Vonnegut was to me." Douglas Adams' irreverent sci-fi adventure, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," also inspired Moore. "I wanted to do for horror what Adams did for science fiction. I wanted to have fun with the conventions."

Since then, Moore has written hysterical tales of demons, vampires, trickster gods and sea monsters. His humor is often dark but never mean; in battles between good and evil, good always prevails, albeit in absurd ways. Moore says, "Wise-ass is my default setting." He's frequently asked if humor can be taught. "You can't teach someone to be funny, but you can teach comic timing," he says. "If you listen to a good comic, you can learn how to put it on a page."

The author that Moore returns to again and again is John Steinbeck. " 'Tortilla Flat,' 'Cannery Row,' 'Sweet Thursday,' the comic novels. There's a beautiful, very sweet, forgiving narrative voice. I figure if I pick up that flavor in my writing because I'm reading 'Cannery Row' for the 400th time, so be it."

Moore, who now lives in Kauai, lived in San Francisco while writing "Bloodsucking Fiends," a story about the love between a vampire and an intrepid grocery clerk. He also stayed in San Francisco while writing "A Dirty Job." "My mom died in 1999, and I was her caretaker, which motivated me to start thinking of death and what goes on around death."

Few humorous novels begin with a character dying, but that's how Charlie Asher, a "beta male" and owner of a North Beach second-hand store, becomes Death. The job takes Charlie all over the city as he haphazardly collects souls and taunts the murderous demons who live in the city's sewer system.

"I came back to San Francisco and spent more time in the neighborhoods like Chinatown and the Mission that I hadn't been in much before," Moore says. "I tried to get a feel for all parts of the city, so when I wrote the book, the neighborhoods would be like characters. There are scenes where all Charlie does is walk through neighborhoods, and it's like an Impressionist painting."

Moore's girlfriend discovered Paxton Gate, a gallery on Valencia that features Sartorial Creatures by artist Monique Motil. The animal skeletons dressed in elaborate period costumes became characters in Moore's novel: A Buddhist priest, who has learned the art of transferring souls, animates the creatures with the help of chunks of ham.

Which brings us to Moore's religious beliefs. When he was in his mid-20s, "I crashed and burned," he says. "My girlfriend left me, I didn't have a place to live, my family was gone." He did a lot of searching and started reading about Buddhism. "I thought, 'This gives me comfort and joy and understanding of the world.' " Moore jokes that he is "a Christmas and Easter Buddhist," but says the philosophy feels like truth to him.

Buddhism's nonexclusionary beliefs allowed Moore to write his most ambitious novel, "Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Pal." The book, which took three years of research and a journey to Israel, blends spirituality with humor as it explores different religious ideas in the context of Jesus' teachings. When a reader challenged him to admit that "Lamb" was his best work, he said, "Yeah, but was I supposed to quit? Am I Harper Lee? Rent was still due."

Biff, who loyally follows Jesus from childhood until adulthood, is the quintessential second banana. Moore says he didn't realize that all of his heroes are beta males until he wrote "A Dirty Job." The concept of beta males has not been defined for humans, so Moore thought, "My definition is that the alpha male developed muscles, good looks and charisma, and the beta male developed a huge imagination."

In the modern world, the beta male imagination may be bigger than necessary and they become a little neurotic. The beta males' imagination allows them to accept and survive in insane situations.

"I think the reason they're beta males is that's who I am and that's how I see the world," says Moore. When asked about his devoted following, he describes another writer as "a rock star" and says, "All of his fans wear black eye shadow and PVC. My fans have great senses of humor and eat too much chocolate."

As ardent about his fans as they are about him, Moore answers every e-mail he gets, "unless there's something creepy on the subject line, like 'soul mate.' " He's deeply committed to his readers and says, "Every page has got to pay something back for whatever they spent for it. I think about that when I'm writing."

Moore is also developing a drama-comedy for one of the networks. "I couldn't make them say no," he says. He refused to pitch the show, then he said he couldn't work on it for months, but they were still interested. "I said to my agent, 'I want, like, stupid money for this,' and he said, 'OK, I'll ask them for stupid money,' and he said they didn't say no." He sighs. "I should have asked for more."

Moore is moving back to San Francisco in June to write a sequel to "Bloodsucking Fiends."

"Kauai is pretty, but I need more art, I need music, I need theater, I need people, and I need culture." He describes San Francisco as a "city of light and dark and distance. It's a great place to set a battle between light and dark." He also likes the diversity and the way the neighborhoods "wash over each other."

Moore wanders down the street to Borderlands Books, which has a huge window display for "A Dirty Job," including a skeleton wearing a promotional T-shirt. He wheedles the shirt away for a child who attended a recent reading, signs stacks of books, and begins his long cross-country journey.